stone

From Art as Experience - by John Dewey  A man does something: he lifts, let us say, a stone. In consequence he undergoes, suffers, something: the weight, strain, texture of the surface of the thing lifted. The stone is too heavy or too angular, not solid enough; or else the properties undergone show it is fit for the use for which it is intended. The process continues until a mutual adaptation of the self and object emerges and that particular experience comes to a close. What is true of this simple instance is true, as to form, of every experience. The creature operating may be a thinker in his study and his environment with which he interacts may consist of ideas instead of stone. But interaction of the two constitutes the total experience that is had, and the close which completes it is the institution of a felt harmony.